Rating: 10/10
Where do I even start? Reading this made me remember the first time I read a manga, the enjoyment at every scene, every time I got flustered by just reading, every time I jumped out of my bed. I remembered all of that. It’s been more than 2 years since I started reading manga and trust me I’ve read a lot of them but this was the first time since suzuka that I loved the manga before I even read it. I felt unusually drawn to it.
So how was it? To me it became one of my most favorites. Loved it from start to end, although it did change the track through half of the story but it was still good. Unlike most shounens I’ve come across, theres no ecchi and the male lead isn't wimpy, its just a realistic story with an original plot. love it! Plus this the first time since a long time that I have cried that the manga ended.
Story & Art
A touching storyline (don’t let the light moments of humor sprinkled throughout fool you) saved this book and kept me reading, from the charactes to the artwork everyhting was amazing. Story wise, it was pretty fast paced and yet it also took time to show how slow burn romance (not ecchi for sure) with comedy and supernatural went. Not too long, nor too short, perfectly well balanced. At some point, I worried about how Hisoka had detective cases which would have dragged this simple story far more unnecessarily but Yagami apparently knew it well enough to keep it simple and straightforward with very few related ones to highlight about, so I had a major relief learning about it.
The author “Ken Yagami” revealed that at the time, “Yu Yu Hakusho” had become a huge success in Jump(Hisoka returns is a shonen jump manga). Yu Yu hakusho started out as a drama about human relationships but then suddenly changed into a battle manga and became a huge hit. That’s why his editor wanted him to do the same thing since the popularity ratings were dropping. But in the end it was cancelled and he was actually happy to hear that because he felt so cornered at that time and just wanted to end Hisoka returns with a good ending.
Around halfway the plot started to turn and did a 180 but trust me once you get to the end you’ll feel it’s worth it that’s because no matter how much difficulties the author faced, he had a clear idea of Hisoka and Rito so be it no matter what happens he knew that he could pull it off. And the art, this is the exact kind of art that I like. With their 1990’s hairdos and the cute fashion outfits. The art is world class, it’s not detailed, it’s not aesthetically pleasing but I love it.
# Characters
To me in a manga, the story and the art are the least of my worries, the only thing I look for in a manga is good characters. Even with bad art and bad story, a good character with good development can shape a good story. That’s why I prefer a character driven story rather than a plot driven story.
Chapter 1 summary – spoilers!!!!!
Spoiler, click to view
Hashijima Hisoka is a biology teacher who always helps other’s in need and his colleague(and former student) is Hoshizaki Rito who is also known as “Textbook girl” because of her personality. Ever since Rito and Hisoka met, Rito fell in love with him and that night Hisoka proposes to Rito with a ammonite shell(she likes them) but just as things were being happy, they hear a shriek of help. Hisoka without any second thoughts jumps in to save the person.
Hisoka wakes up in the body of another person. When he wakes up he sees a monk beside him who tells him that “He’s dead”. Well technically he’s dead but he’s not, his souls has been switched with the person he was trying to save because that person was already dead by the time he got to him and his soul was gone. But the soul switching has one problem, he can’t reveal his true identity to anyone or else he would die.
Later Hisoka finds out that the body he is in belongs to Narukami Gengorou who is a student in another school. Still in love with Rito he vows to win her back bycarrying the memories of Hisoka and by living the life of Narukami Gengorou. And so begins the journey of Hisoka to win Rito’s love back!
Since it’s a spoiler free review(except for the ch1 summary), I didn’t want to discuss the ending but I’ll say it, it was satisfying. I’m crying again from remembering the end, I wish there was more. upon learning the fact that this has yet have anime version all this so sad, now that I started watching anime again I hope that maybe in the future there’d be a miracle and it would get an anime adaptation.
All in all this is a manga I wouldn’t forget for a lifetime. No stupid misunderstandings, no dumb MCs, no predictable plot, a very unique manga which is seriously underrated. I really wish this would get more attention in the future.
Thank you for reading.
A touching storyline (don’t let the light moments of humor sprinkled throughout fool you) saved this book and kept me reading, from the charactes to the artwork everyhting was amazing. Story wise, it was pretty fast paced and yet it also took time to show how slow burn romance (not ecchi for sure) with comedy and supernatural went. Not too long, nor too short, perfectly well balanced. At some point, I worried about how Hisoka had detective cases which would have dragged this simple story far more unnecessarily but Yagami apparently knew it well enough to keep it simple and straightforward with very few related ones to highlight about, so I had a major relief learning about it.
The author “Ken Yagami” revealed that at the time, “Yu Yu Hakusho” had become a huge success in Jump(Hisoka returns is a shonen jump manga). Yu Yu hakusho started out as a drama about human relationships but then suddenly changed into a battle manga and became a huge hit. That’s why his editor wanted him to do the same thing since the popularity ratings were dropping. But in the end it was cancelled and he was actually happy to hear that because he felt so cornered at that time and just wanted to end Hisoka returns with a good ending.
Around halfway the plot started to turn and did a 180 but trust me once you get to the end you’ll feel it’s worth it that’s because no matter how much difficulties the author faced, he had a clear idea of Hisoka and Rito so be it no matter what happens he knew that he could pull it off. And the art, this is the exact kind of art that I like. With their 1990’s hairdos and the cute fashion outfits. The art is world class, it’s not detailed, it’s not aesthetically pleasing but I love it.
# Characters
To me in a manga, the story and the art are the least of my worries, the only thing I look for in a manga is good characters. Even with bad art and bad story, a good character with good development can shape a good story. That’s why I prefer a character driven story rather than a plot driven story.
Chapter 1 summary – spoilers!!!!!
Spoiler, click to view
Hashijima Hisoka is a biology teacher who always helps other’s in need and his colleague(and former student) is Hoshizaki Rito who is also known as “Textbook girl” because of her personality. Ever since Rito and Hisoka met, Rito fell in love with him and that night Hisoka proposes to Rito with a ammonite shell(she likes them) but just as things were being happy, they hear a shriek of help. Hisoka without any second thoughts jumps in to save the person.Hisoka wakes up in the body of another person. When he wakes up he sees a monk beside him who tells him that “He’s dead”. Well technically he’s dead but he’s not, his souls has been switched with the person he was trying to save because that person was already dead by the time he got to him and his soul was gone. But the soul switching has one problem, he can’t reveal his true identity to anyone or else he would die.
Later Hisoka finds out that the body he is in belongs to Narukami Gengorou who is a student in another school. Still in love with Rito he vows to win her back bycarrying the memories of Hisoka and by living the life of Narukami Gengorou. And so begins the journey of Hisoka to win Rito’s love back!
Since it’s a spoiler free review(except for the ch1 summary), I didn’t want to discuss the ending but I’ll say it, it was satisfying. I’m crying again from remembering the end, I wish there was more. upon learning the fact that this has yet have anime version all this so sad, now that I started watching anime again I hope that maybe in the future there’d be a miracle and it would get an anime adaptation.
All in all this is a manga I wouldn’t forget for a lifetime. No stupid misunderstandings, no dumb MCs, no predictable plot, a very unique manga which is seriously underrated. I really wish this would get more attention in the future.
Thank you for reading.